365/31--my loves

365/30--Wow!!

So this happened today.... No more words necessary:-)

365/29 lunch with Kristin

Fantastic. Two weeks in a row--we managed to have lunch!! This time she is in my neck of the neighborhood.

365/28 Finally a clean laundry room

I am hoping most people can relate to the happiness that being caught up on laundry brings me. When I am behind--seriously, I had a laundry crisis on my hands--it is completely stressful. My husband and kids are always looking for their stuff and living out of their baskets in the laundry room instead of their closets.

Well, crisis averted. I am caught up!

365/27. Birthday Lunch with Maki

The 

Today my happy spot is my lunch with my new friend Maki. 

I appreciate and love so much our new friendship! 

We met at a great new (for me) Italian restaurant Double Zero. Such awesome pizza. And the pork tenderloin stuffed with sausage sandwich was amazing. 

Conversation and friendship even better. Here is our "selfie". 

365/26 Girl Scout Leadership Meeting

Wonderful Girl Scout leadership meeting hosted at my house tonight. So much fun with a Mexican theme. Everyone enjoyed themselves. My sangria came out great!

The other happy spot is a secret!!!

365/25 Hot Chocolate 5K

We planned. We got up early (5am!). We drove to Turner Field. We waited in the car because of the cold. We went to the port-a-potty. We ran. We conquered!! Then we had breakfast!! Yum!

So proud of my sweeties for finishing heir first 5K. They PR'd 😜

365/24 Kangeiko

We had a great Kangeiko celebration at Taido today. We celebrated our recommitment to Taido for the year and were very thankful for the year we had together. The kids' Kangeiko lasted from 10 am to 12 and then we are omochi that the senseis pounded from rice. Maki's family and mine had a great Japanese lunch then the adult Kangeiko started. It lasted from 1:30 to 5 pm. Whew! We did 1000 punches and an awesome workout. We watched the fabulous black belts and top gun students. We watched a video of the year 2014 and ended with a sake toast. Akemashite Omedetou gozaimas! 

So Many Happy Spots Today!!

3 happy spots today! I am so lucky!

Today, I got to judge the school's spelling bee. I did it last year and I LOVED it. Such a fun event. I had so much fun today, and I so enjoyed participating.

Later, I got a sweet gift from Diana. She was spreading happiness earlier in the year, and I was one of the lucky people who commented on her post. My follow through will be to treat my commenters to a special gift too. Watch out, Maki, Amy, Cecile, John and Amy... Erin, Kevin and Shane--hey, you never know! Here is my pretty bracelet from the lovely Diana (layered with the bracelet from Kristin!):

My third happy spot is bringing these two sweet kids on their first mass transit ride on the Atlanta MARTA! They thought it was so cool!!

Here they are at the Hot Chocolate 5K packet pick up! They are so excited! 

Thankful on this Thursday

Today I am thankful that my friend Teri went through her double mastectomy without a problem. I got to visit her at the hospital and give her some love, hugs and prayers. I am so lucky to have this lovely lady as a soul sister and friend. I love her dearly. Today my happy spot is Teri.

Lunch with Kristin

Today I had a loooooooong overdue lunch with Kristin. We even exchanged Christmas presents. Once again, chatting got the best of us, and alas, no photo of us (another lunch next week, so hopefully we will take 2 :-)

Here is my one pic and symbol of my happy spot for the day--the beautiful bracelet she gave me.

365/20 Lunch with Maki

I had a wonderful fun lunch with Maki today at the Vietnamese restaurant in Dunwoody--ashamed to say I'd never had Vietnamese food until Maki's Stella and Dot launch party. She had the Ban Minh sandwiches which were to die for! Well, today we went to the restaurant and I had the sandwich with some dumpling soup. Delicious!

Maki is one of those friends with whom I could talk forever. We had to run at the last minute and didn't get a photo of us... but I did get a photo of my food!

Thanks Maki, for being my happy spot today :-)

365/19 Love my kids

Today I had a great day with my kids. I love the school holidays when we have nothing planned and can have the day all to ourselves. Today we went to see a matinee movie for lunch (Paddington!), Abby and I got pedis and then we took the dogs for a walk. The kids chose their dinner (ravioli), and we had a relaxing night.

365/18

My happy spot today. I love that my twins are so "twinny". 

365/16

Yogli-Mogli ... Treat for excellent report cards. 

365/15--struggling, but this made me smile :-)

So, I have bronchitis, and I am tired, and my throat and stomach hurt from coughing. I took a 2 hour nap this afternoon. I really feel like crud. I really had to go deep for my happy spot today. But then this happened. And I smiled. Zoe is trying so hard to be Brooky's friend :-)

365/14--Straight A's

My happy spot today-- so proud of my kiddos for bringing home straight A's in their report card for the second quarter in a row!!

365/13--my sweet Brownie

My happy spot today is sweet hugs from this girl. She sold 22 boxes of Girl Scout cookies today. Her goal is 180... We will get there!! Boxes sold to Grandma and Grandpa to be sent to the military got her the Smiles for Military patch already :-) .

365/12--Brooklyn & Running

I had a fairly normal day--getting back to my normal routine after the week away.  I also have been sick with a terrible cough, and lost voice ever since I finished the half marathon Sunday.

When I got back Sunday night, my son was listening to me talk about the race, and he decided that he wants to start running 5K's with me. So I also signed all three of us up for the Hot Chocolate 5K in two weeks. J is away that weekend, so it's just me and the twins, but we should have a lot of fun!

I also registered for my next half! The Atlanta Public Half Marathon in March!! So excited.

As 9 pm rolled around, I started feeling worse and worse, and headed up to bed, but my sweet dog Brooklyn came with me to snuggle and this was a very happy spot of my day--even though I didn't feel well.

365/11--Mary Queen of the Universe Shrine

Church this morning. This creche made me happy. What a gorgeous church with no congregation because it is located in Orlando on Disney Property. How lucky I was that Stacy took me here.

365/10 Disney Half Marathon

My happy spot for the day. I finished in 2:19 (official) but 2:16 according to my watch!! It was cold!! But I felt great! So proud of myself.

365/9--Jeff Galloway

Today Stacy and I went to the Disney Marathon Weekend expo. So much fun and got to spend some great time looking over neat running stuff. Don't always get to do that!! Fun to do with a friend. We also got to meet Jeff Galloway!! As much as his method is not for me... He is one of the greatest runners ever so an honor to meet him!! Tomorrow I run the Disney Half!!

365/8 Friendship

Today I had an awesome catch up lunch with a very dear friend. We always have such an amazing time together and laugh and laugh. This is my happy spot today. 

365/7 Taido

Ok. Here is my happy for today. First night back at Taido for the year. I learned a new kick Ni Dan Geri -- double kick. Very hard. I loved it and feeling great!

365/6 Sarah's Key

UPDATE!!: Finished the book last night. It was so great and a page turner. A must read in my view. 


My happy spot today. Such a great book.  I'm on page 199 of 293 day 2.

5/365 my run

My happy spot today. I didn't think I was going to get my run in but here it is!!

Day 4--Doggie Pick Up and Clean Up

Today we got to pick up our puppies (well one is still a puppy) from their respective caregivers. Zoe gets to go to the pet resorts because... well, she is a puppy and playing all day with other puppies is her measure of paradise. Brooky got to go stay with our friends Christy and Richard (and Sam!) because, well, they love her, she fits into their dynamic, and it makes us feel so good that she can stay with them.

Today we also un-decked our halls. We love to decorate so it is no small task. Oh and our tree is real. And 12 feet high.

So . a . lot . of . clean . up .

AND IT'S ALL DONE!! Every little bit from the tree to ornaments, to lights to pine needles. All done. Yay!

Today I am thankful and happy for a clean house that is de-Christmas-ified. A carefree family that doesn't care that I didn't make a proper dinner, and loves to just hang out. I am also happy and very thankful for good friends that take care of our precious "puppy".

That's all. And that is so great.

Day 3--Leaving is so bittersweet...

So day 3. This day is always sad. It's not the day of the year, but the day we leave our New York Family. We ALL get sad. But I will say, Abby gets more sad than us all. I believe she cried all the way to the airport from East Hampton (2 1/2 hours), she cried a bit at the airport, she cried on the flight. Then I think she was done.

We were all happy to get home. So happy to have our own beds we snuggled as a family in our big parent bed for a while before sending everyone off to sleep... even though it was 11 pm or so... (won't admit to later than that! LOL)

Even though there was some bittersweet feelings today, I feel very happy and extremely thankful for the relationship that my kids have with their cousins. They just love each other so much and this is why they are so sad when we leave. The reason is ultimately good. Here are our goodbye pics:

Virtual Happiness Jar--Day 2

Today I find myself happy for simple things. I am happy that I have completed 16 miles while away on vacation this week. Today I did my quick 3 mile route from my sister's house in East Hampton. It's not far, but it's just enough to make me feel great about my day. When I got back from this run, I came back to find my kids and Lauren, their cousin, and my sweet niece playing in the leaves. What a great memory.

Later that night the adults played a game that we have so much playing--it's called Blokus. It is a strategy game of getting all your pieces down, but we have so much fun playing it and we LAUGH and LAUGH. This is my other happy spot of the day.



Hope you had a good one!!

Welcome to My Happiness Project

Welcome to my Happiness Project. I recently read the Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin. It had some really interesting thoughts and ideas about how to improve your life happiness even if you are seemingly, or outwardly happy. Not all of the ideas were for me, but it did make me think a lot about my happiness. Generally, I am a happy lady but the idea of being more appreciative, more thankful and more aware of the important things in life appealed to me.

I recently saw a crafty, thankful project on Facebook. The general idea was to put a note in a jar every day of 2015 with something good, sweet or something that makes you smile that day. Then on the New Year's Eve 2015, you are supposed to read all the little notes. I liked the idea of being thankful for or happy about something every single day and being conscious of that. BUT-- I didn't like the idea of having a jar around... and then I am never sure to be home on New Year's so a jar is a lot to carry around for that.

This blog is my version of that jar. Let's call it a virtual jar. Every day my post will represent those little notes I'm supposed to put in the jar. My perfect little happiness project.

So here is my first happiness post of 2015:

We are in New York celebrating Christmas and New Year's with my family. We are staying in East Hampton with my sister. My very oldest and best friend in the world is Amy (who is a fabulous cook and writer!) and she invited us to dinner at her house in Greenport that evening.

I hadn't seen Amy's house since she owned it--almost 2 years--and I hadn't seen her awesome and fun husband in almost as long.

Amy made us a wonderful dinner. Risotto with bay scallops and a starter of rillette of pork and smoked fresh mozzarella. The dessert was pumpkin bread pudding. I brought the 2 pounds of bay scallops that I received as a Christmas present from my fisherman cousin, Tommy, and we added that to the beautiful risotto. Amy had an awesome Bourbon from upstate New York that we sampled after dinner.

The food and drink was exceptionally good, but the catching up, the laughs, the guitar playing by Dan, and the general awesome feeling of being with people who know you, who get you and who you love (and you feel the love back) is worth everything in the world to me.

Here are a couple of pics from the evening: